How to avoid becoming the next hacking victim like Sony or Lockheed Martin

The increasing number of cyber attacks in recent months has prompted security experts to advise organisations to invest in different types of defence technology to ensure that they are not the next Lockheed Martin, Sony or Nintendo.

Gone are the usual suggestions of encryption, firewall and password protection techniques. Consultancies Detica, Protiviti and Forrester Research are instead urging companies to consider a range of emerging technologies to defend their business.

Detica's head of investment banking, Nik Whitfield, suggested that analytics tools can be used to examine whether documents are quietly being ferried out of the building.

"We try to get a thorough understanding of the data that is flowing into and out of an organisation at the most fundamental level possible," said Whitfield.

"Run analytics across the data, and try to infer if there is activity going on you are not aware of, but should be aware of. It is at a fundamental level, not an application level, so look at bytes rather than specific documents."

Meanwhile, Ryan Rubin, Protiviti's director of security and privacy in the UK, said that, as more employees use iPads, smartphones and other devices to access company systems, IT departments should use software that can control the data being transferred onto the devices, as well as software that can delete data remotely if the devices are lost or stolen.

In accessing networks, Rubin said that the notion of 'least privilege' can be useful, giving people access only to systems and data they need for their job, as well as limiting exposure to key information systems and sensitive data.